Beauty in Full Colour: ’90s Nostalgia, Low-Waste Makeup + The Future Of Conscious Cosmetics (Win!)

Canadian clean beauty brand Elate Cosmetics is bringing bold ’90s-inspired self-expression into Spring 2026—with a sustainable twist. The Victoria-based, B-Corp certified brand has just launched a new collection of multi-use beauty pencils designed for effortless everyday colour, from shimmering eye shades to creamy lip hues and precision liners. We caught up with founder Melodie Reynolds to chat about the inspiration behind the collection, why refillable beauty matters more than ever, and how Elate continues to redefine conscious cosmetics without sacrificing fun, pigment or creativity. —Noa Nichol

How did you balance the playful, expressive energy of ’90s beauty trends with the brand’s commitment to low-waste design and conscious ingredients?

For me, those two things have always lived in the same space. Playful can also be intentional, and I use this as a template to innovate sustainably. The ’90s were such an interesting moment in beauty because there was a real willingness to experiment with colour without taking yourself too seriously, and that spirit sits so naturally alongside the way I think about formulation at Elate. I’ve never wanted to make products that are sustainable but not actually fun to use. The Featured collection was a chance to show that low-waste design and genuinely expressive colour can be one and the same. 

What elements of ’90s beauty specifically inspired you, and why do you think that era is resonating again right now?

I lived this era, and although there was plenty of high-gloss, ‘done’ beauty in the ’90s, there was also a more casual end of it that I really identified with. Think a silk bias cut dress with combat boots. The smudged liner, a bright lip colour worn bled out, and the sense that beauty was something you reached for rather than laboured over. There was a confidence in the imperfection of it.

I think it’s resonating right now because people are exhausted by ‘optimized’ beauty. The last few years of content have been relentless, and there’s a real hunger for something that feels personal rather than algorithmic. The ’90s, at their best, were about individual style rather than a single standard of what beauty looked like. That’s a tension a lot of people are feeling acutely right now, and colour is one of the easiest places to push back.

Why was it important for these pencils to work beyond a single category, especially for modern consumers looking to simplify their routines?

Multi-use products aren’t new, we have been formulating them for years, but the reasoning behind them has shifted. We used to speak mostly about the convenience of a multi purpose product, but what I hear from people now is that they want less decision fatigue and less physical stuff. They want a smaller beauty bag that still gives them a full range of expression.

A pencil that works on the eyes, lips, and cheeks isn’t a gimmick if the formula is actually good enough to perform across all three. That was the bar we held ourselves to. If it only worked convincingly in one application, it didn’t make the collection. And there’s something really satisfying about a product that trusts the person using it to figure out their own version of it, rather than prescribing exactly what it’s for.

What do you wish more consumers understood about the environmental impact of everyday beauty packaging?

That the weight and material of what something is packaged in matters far more than whether it looks “natural” on a shelf. Brown kraft paper can be worse for the environment than aluminum, depending on how it’s processed and whether it actually gets recycled. The aesthetics of sustainability and the reality of it have been allowed to drift very far apart in this industry, and brands have benefited from that confusion.

The choice to use PEFC-certified cedarwood and recycled aluminum caps wasn’t about signal. Cedarwood is biodegradable and responsibly forested, and aluminum is one of the few materials that genuinely gets recycled at scale without significant degradation. What I wish people understood is that “recyclable” and “will be recycled” (we call it wishcycling) are completely different things. The infrastructure question matters as much as the material choice, and most brands never talk about that because it requires them to get into territory that doesn’t photograph well.

How has your West Coast perspective shaped the way Elate approaches colour, formulation, and the overall experience of beauty?

Victoria specifically has a quality of life that I know quietly informs everything I do. The light is soft most of the year, the ocean is cold, and the forests are green, lush, and fertile. The colours that look right here aren’t the ones that look right under the flat artificial light of a lot of retail environments. We’ve always gravitated toward tones that have warmth and depth rather than colours engineered to pop under fluorescent bulbs, and I think that comes from spending a lot of time actually looking at the landscape, and being outside.

The West Coast relationship with nature is also less decorative than it is in other parts of the country. It’s not a backdrop, it’s something you’re in. That shows up in how we think about formulation. The question is never about marketing ingredients.  It’s: what does this ingredient actually do, and is its sourcing something we’d be comfortable explaining in full? Does it live in balance with the natural world, and will it return to it? That rigour came directly from being in a place where people have a pretty low tolerance for green-washing, and a high regard for living in symbiosis with our surroundings. There is so much beauty here, and I am grateful to be inspired by it. 

Win! A $250 Elate Cosmetics Gift Card!

Congrats Reilly R. of Vernon, BC, who will receive a $250 Elate Cosmetics Gift Card! Please note: if you are the winner, you will receive a DM (direct message) in Instagram directly from @vitadailymedia. Please be wary of fake accounts, which often use similar handles with an extra or missing letter, number or symbol. We will never ask for a payment or for your credit card number, and we will never ask you to click through a link. If you are unsure whether you have been contacted, via Instagram, by us or a fake account, email us before responding. Full contest rules/regulations here.